The Oakland A's have promoted the rarest of players, a switch-pitcher - Business Insider Pat Venditte is the first MLB switch-pitcher in 20 years.AP The Oakland A's have promoted Pat Venditte to the major leagues. Normally the promotion of a middle reliever would not make any waves, but Venditte is different: He can pitch with both arms. When Venditte appears in his first game, he will be the first switch pitcher in Major League Baseball since 1894 and the first pitcher to use both arms in a single game since Greg A. Harris did in 1995. Harris was a right-handed pitcher who taught himself to throw left-handed, doing it only once, in his next-to-last game in the big leagues. A natural right-hander, Venditte was encouraged by his dad, a former college baseball player, throw with both arms. His father told ESPN's E:60 that his hope was just that his son would make it further in baseball than he did. Your browser does not support the video tag. ESPN.com The biggest challenge growing up was finding a glove Venditte could use in Little League games after being told he couldn't take two gloves to the mound.

The result was this six-fingered monstrosity produced by Mizuno in Osaka, Japan. ESPN E:60 There are two huge advantages to being able to pitch with both arms. The first is within the game as Venditte can switch arms depending on the batter at the plate or the situation in the game. Venditte can choose to throw right-handed to a right-handed batter, left-handed to a left-handed batter, or keep a runner on first base closer to the bag by throwing lefty, to name a couple of examples. The other advantage is that Venditte can, in theory, throw twice as many pitches and twice as often as a normal pitcher, a huge advantage in today's game where teams often need three to five relievers in a single night. The only complication occurs when there is a switch-hitter, something that has already been addressed by Major League Baseball's Rule 5.07, which includes a section for ambidextrous pitchers.

The rule says Venditte must declare which hand he will use for each batter and he cannot switch until he faces a new batter: "A pitcher must indicate visually to the umpire-in-chief, the batter and any runners the hand with which he intends to pitch, which may be done by wearing his glove on the other hand while touching the pitcher’s plate. The pitcher is not permitted to pitch with the other hand until the batter is retired, the batter becomes a runner, the inning ends, the batter is substituted for by a pinch-hitter or the pitcher incurs an injury. In the event a pitcher switches pitching hands during an at-bat because he has suffered an injury, the pitcher may not, for the remainder of the game, pitch with the hand from which he has switched. The pitcher shall not be given the opportunity to throw any preparatory pitches after switching pitching hands.

Any change of pitching hands must be indicated clearly to the umpire-in-chief." That rule was put in place to avoid a situation like the one that occurred with Venditte in the minor leagues back in 2009, when he faced a switch-hitter and the two kept switching back-and-forth and nobody seemed to know what to do (see the 1:13 mark of this video): There are downsides to being a switch-pitcher. It likely takes Venditte twice as long to warm-up and on top of that, pitchers are allowed just eight warm-up pitches when they enter the game. Venditte will likely have to split those pitches up. The bigger issue is mechanics. Pitching is a complicated process with a ton of moving parts. One hiccup in the operation can mess everything up. Venditte, while he has similar throwing motions from both sides, still has two sets of mechanics he must be concerned with at all times while developing two separate arms to be big league ready. That latter point was likely a contributing factor to why it has taken Venditte seven years to make it to the big leagues since being drafted by the Yankees back in 2008.

If Venditte can prove both arms belong in the big leagues, it will be a huge advantage for the A's, who now get an extra arm to use that other teams can't have. Bats left, throws right (Part 1) – The Hardball Times by Steve Treder This past summer, the 2008 U.S. Olympic Baseball team happened to hold its first workout in my hometown , at Steve Schott Stadium . The practice session was open to the public, and I spent a very enjoyable afternoon watching the squad go through the infield and outfield fungo drills, and take batting practice. My enjoyment was enhanced by a companion in the grandstand: one of my sisters-in-law. This sister-in-law doesn’t know a heck of a lot about baseball, but she’s highly knowledgable about basketball (her eldest daughter recently accepted a full-ride basketball scholarship to Santa Clara ), and has a keen mind for athletics. And thus having her ask me intelligent, perceptive questions about baseball techniques and strategies as we watched the ballplayers undergo their workout was refreshing. There’s no better way to grapple with one’s own understanding of principles than to attempt to describe and explain them to a genuinely curious inquirer.

During batting practice, she was quick to notice that a few of the players hit left handed sometimes, and right handed other times. “Isn’t that against the rules?” No. “Why do they do it?” Well, because they gain an advantage by batting left handed against right-handed pitchers, and vice-versa. “How does that give them an advantage?” Well, that’s always been a bit of a mystery, but the prevailing theory is that it’s a combination of better sightlines on the ball and the effect of the angle and typical break of the pitch toward the batter rather than away from him. “Then why doesn’t every batter do it?” Well, because it’s a very difficult skill to master; most players just aren’t ambidextrous enough to be able to be successful at it. This concept resonated with my sister-in-law. She described the difficulty her daughter and other excellent basketball players often encounter in learning to dribble and/or pass with their opposite hand. Virtually no one shoots ambidextrously. And then she noticed that one of the players who’d been throwing right handed during the fielding drill was now taking BP left handed, even after they’d switched to a left-handed batting practice pitcher.

“Why doesn’t he bat right handed against this pitcher?” Well—how to explain this—he’s one of the rare players who naturally throws with his right hand, and naturally bats with his left. He’s ambidextrous in that way, but not ambidextrous enough to be able to switch-hit. She laughed. “That’s just weird!” I had to laugh with her. It is just weird, isn’t it? This delightful conversation stuck with me. Obviously I’d always known of the bats-left-throws-right category of ballplayer (and his even rarer mirror image, bats-right-throws-left), but realized that I hadn’t ever thought much about this phenomenon. Switch-hitting is one thing: mastering (or at least attempting to master) a difficult skill in order to gain an obvious tactical advantage. But the player who “naturally” bats one way and throws the other—hang on now, he’s ambidextrous enough to do that, but not ambidextrous enough to simply switch-hit, and gain that obvious tactical advantage? The world is an endlessly fascinating place. And a weird one, I guess. So, how weird is it?

The split between right handedness and left handedness in the human population is roughly 80/20. It’s more complicated than that, of course, given that there are varying degrees of intensity in either direction, with a very small proportion of people being completely ambidextrous. But as a rule of thumb, four out of five people are right handed. Baseball is a sport that distinctly rewards left-handed hitting. Traditionally cited as an explanation for this is the fact that the left-handed hitter is an extra step closer to first base, but the research of John Walsh (see the References and Resources section below) indicates this isn’t a significant issue. The genuine reason is simply that the left-handed hitter generally enjoys the platoon advantage, since the majority of pitchers are right handed. Because of the left-handed hitting advantage, baseball attracts more than its share of left-handed athletes, or at least athletes ambidextrous enough to learn to bat lefty. The proportion of left-handed batters (including switch-hitters batting lefty) at the major league level is always far greater than the 20 percent that a random sample of the population would yield; indeed it’s generally more like 40 percent.

Because of the left-handed hitting advantage, teams are motivated to counteract it by recruiting and developing as many left-handed pitchers as possible. Unlike batting, practically no one is ambidextrous enough to be able to pitch effectively with their non-dominant arm: A left-handed pitcher is genuinely left handed. But baseball’s hunger for southpaws means that the proportion of left-handed pitchers at the major league level is also always greater than 20 percent; interestingly it’s also generally around 35-40 percent. Positional issues The overall proportion of 40 percent or so left-handed batters isn’t uniform across the defensive spectrum. While any batter (at least those properly ambidextrous enough) can choose to bat right handed or left handed, the demands of various defensive positions aren’t so accommodating. As the bases are run in a counter-clockwise direction, the challenge of pivoting and throwing to first base has rendered it practically impossible for about the past 100 years in the major leagues to be anything but a right-handed thrower and play third base, shortstop or second base.

And, at any level higher than Little League, one virtually never sees anything but a right-handed throwing catcher, for reasons that are far less obvious (the most commonly offered, that since most batters are right handed a lefty-throwing catcher would have his throwing impaired by batters, isn’t very convincing) and is probably just a function of hidebound tradition. In any case, what this means is that while a right-handed thrower can play anywhere, there are only four fielding positions (other than pitcher) that a left-handed thrower is allowed to play: first base, left field, center field and right field. But there’s no advantage (or disadvantage) to being a left-handed thrower in the outfield, and while at first base there’s a slight advantage for lefties (it’s easier for a southpaw to start the 3-6-3 or 3-6-1 double play), it’s fair to say that which hand a player throws with is largely irrelevant at first base and the outfield. Who hits which way? So, just how does all this positional throwing protocol impact the handedness of hitters?

From Retrosheet I’ve gotten my hands on the stats on what proportion of plate appearances were taken by right-handed batters, switch-hitters and left-handed batters playing each position in the major leagues from 1957 through 2006. Our first look is at right-handed batters playing first base or the outfield. I’ve tossed designated hitters in here too, since which hand they throw with is utterly irrelevant. We see that over this half-century, the proportion of RHBs at these positions has generally been around 50 percent, or slightly below. There’s a trend in the downward direction over the period, but it isn’t very strong; the proportion has never dropped below 40 percent. Let’s compare this with right-handed batters playing those positions at which right-handed throwing is universal (okay, pardon me, Dale Long , Mike Squires and Don Mattingly : near-universal): The distinction could hardly be clearer.

Not only is the percentage of right-handed batters filling these “high skill” defensive positions quite a bit higher—ranging between 60 percent and 80 percent, and usually at about 70 percent—the variation between positions is significantly less here than among the outfielders and first basemen. The pattern for all of these positions is tightly consistent, while the lines in the upper graph vary all over the place, between one another and from season to season. None of this should be surprising. The positions that demand right-handed throwers yield a higher and more stable proportion of right-handed batters. Before considering strictly left-handed batters, why don’t we first take a look at switch-hitters. First let’s see them at first base, the outfield, and DH: Interesting, yes? Switch-hitters at these offense-first positions were nearly unheard of a half-century ago (if it weren’t for Mickey Mantle in center field, that “TOTAL” line would be barely above zero in the first few years we see). But the prevalance of switch-hitters dramatically increased over the rest of the century before appearing to stabilize in the most recent seasons.

Still, let’s bear in mind that all these percentages are small: The proportion of switch-hitters at these positions has never approached 50 percent; indeed the combined total peaked at just over 15 percent in the mid-1990s. Even though these are positions from which offensive production is essential, and even though the skill and training of ballplayers has never been more highly refined than in the current era, switch-hitting among outfielders, first basemen and designated hitters remains a rarity. How about at the defense-first positions? Two things jump out. First, as with the other positions, we see a remarkable growth in the quantity of switch-hitters across the decades. And second, even though these players are selected for their fielding skill to a far greater degree than at the other positions, the prevalance of switch-hitting here is higher than at the other positions. Switch-hitting second basemen and shortstops have on occasion gotten into the 35-40 percent range. But the overall total of switch-hitters at these positions still isn’t high. It’s stabilized at around 20-25 percent. Considering both of these graphs of switch-hitters, a couple of concepts seem to be suggested.

One is that switch-hitting tends to be practiced more by smaller, less-powerful hitters than by the big guys at the power positions, indicating that it’s easier to swing from the other side of the plate if you’re focusing more on contact than on swinging for the fences. And other is that even for slappy little guys, switch-hitting ain’t easy. If it were, everyone would do it, and the fact is that even as this skill has been mastered by more players than ever before, it remains beyond the reach of the great majority of players at every position. All right, finally, how about the straight-lefty hitters? Here are the who-cares-how-they-throw boys: The first basemen stand out here. Not all of these are left-handed throwers, of course, but given that first base is the one position at which throwing lefty constitutes an advantage, it isn’t surprising that it’s almost always the position with the most left-handed hitters. The rest are fairly closely bunched together, averaging somewhere around 40 percent overall. Now for the guys who truly pique my interest: the left-handed hitters handling the positions at which right-handed throwing, and throwing very well, is a necessity: Several intriguing implications here.

First, all the lines are reasonably steady over the 50-year span, except for the catchers: What’s up with that? There would seem to have been something of a Golden Age for left-handed hitting catchers in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but that line soon came down to earth and joined the others. Second basemen and third basemen have been rather consistently in the 15-20 percent range. And shortstops—handling the most demanding fielding position on the diamond, the position from which hard, accurate, often off-balance right-handed throwing is a vital skill—display the lowest degree of straight left-handed hitting of any position, indicating that “true” dominant right handedness is rewarded at shortstop as nowhere else in baseball. All right then This particular phenomenon intrigues me, because as a right-handed-all-the-way specimen myself, the notion of switch-hitting alone has always struck me as an exceptionally difficult thing to do (and if you ever saw me bat left-handed, you’d be sympathetic), and so the further notion of surrendering the opportunity to bat from your natural side against left-handed pitchers just boggles my mind.

As you may recall, I recently had the opportunity to talk with Terry Kennedy , a quite successful left-handed-hitting catcher for many years, and I asked him how he came to be a left-handed batter. He explained that his ex-pro-ballplayer father had guided him to do so from his earliest childhood, reasoning that gaining the platoon advantage in close to 70 percent of your at-bats is worth having to hit from the unnatural side. Kennedy says that batting is the only thing in life he’s ever done left handed—well, that and putting in golf, though, interestingly, he swings his woods and irons right handed. But, I asked, did you ever switch-hit? His blunt reply: “I should have been a switch-hitter and regret it to this day.” I tell ya, this phenomenon intrigues me. Upcoming installments Just who are the most prominent among this distinct minority of major league ballplayers, who bat left and throw right while occupying these “high skill” defensive assignments?

We’re going to get to know them: {exp:list_maker}The best left-handed hitting catchers in major league history The best left-handed hitting third basemen in major league history The best left-handed hitting second basemen in major league history The best left-handed hitting shortstops in major league history {/exp:list_maker} And finally, because they’re the weirdest of all: {exp:list_maker}The best right-handed hitting, left-handed throwing players in major league history {/exp:list_maker} References & Resources Huge shout-out to my buddy John Walsh, for painstakingly pulling all these data for me from the Retrosheet data set. And for a fascinating read on the issue of left-handed versus right-handed batting, please see John’s November 2007 Hardball Times article, “The advantage of batting left-handed.” Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte hoping for his call to the majors | Newsday Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte hoping for his call to the majors Updated August 17, 2014 9:59 PM By JIM BAUMBACH jim.baumbach@newsday.com advertisement | advertise on newsday MOOSIC, Pa.

- Yankees minor-leaguer Pat Venditte is one phone call away from his dream of making it to the major leagues. But there are two sides to this pitcher's story. If that call comes, Venditte will become the first man in major-league history to be promoted as an ambidextrous pitcher. There have been countless switch hitters in the game's history, of course, but there has never been a pitcher to make it to the majors who could routinely throw with both arms. And Venditte is determined to prove that his pitching style is not a gimmick. He believes he can get big-league hitters out -- with either hand -- if given the chance. Latest Yankees stories Yankees sign Ruben Tejada "Any time you're different in this game, there's a level of doubt that comes along with it," he said. "You overcome that with good performance." Venditte's performance in the minor leagues shows he could be ready for the call. He has a 2.65 ERA and has held opposing hitters to a .217 batting average while playing in Double-A and Triple-A this season.

Still, the injury-depleted Yankees have reached into the minor leagues for a pitcher 25 times this season but have never called on the 29-year-old switch pitcher. General manager Brian Cashman said last week that Venditte's name has come up lately in the team's conversations when a reliever was needed. "I visualize myself coming out of that bullpen in New York every day," Venditte said. "It's a thought that crosses my mind, and it would be crazy if it didn't.'' advertisement | advertise on newsday The thought also has caused baseball to draft special rules for him right from the start. When Venditte faced a switch hitter in his pro debut for the Staten Island Yankees in 2008, a cat-and-mouse game ensued. When Venditte prepared to throw righthanded, the hitter set up as a lefthanded batter. So Venditte switched to his left hand, and the hitter switched as well. This went on for several minutes before the umpires stepped in and decided for them.

Since then, Major League Baseball has adopted "Rule 8.01(f)" -- also known as "The Pat Venditte Rule." It says the pitcher "must indicate visually" to the umpire, batter and runners which hand he's going to pitch with "by wearing his glove on the other hand while touching the pitcher's plate." From that point, there is no switching allowed. "The switch-pitching part, it doesn't play into my thoughts because that's what I do," said Venditte, who uses a specially made glove that can be worn on either hand. "That's how I got here and it's how I hopefully will take that next step." The only known time that switch pitching was attempted in the modern history of the game was in 1995, when righthander Greg A. Harris -- a former Met -- was with the Expos and in the second-to-last game of his career. Harris, 39, entered in the ninth inning with the Expos trailing 9-3 in what became a 9-7 loss. Pitching righthanded, he got Reggie Sanders to ground out.

He then threw with his left arm to two hitters, walking Hal Morris on four pitches and retiring Eddie Taubensee on a dribbler in front of the plate. Harris then went back to throwing righthanded and got Bret Boone on a comebacker. Harris' glove is in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.A natural righty Venditte, who is from Omaha, Nebraska, is naturally righthanded, but he said his father, Pat Venditte Sr., began teaching him how to throw with both arms as early as age 3. By now, Venditte said, throwing lefty feels natural to him. advertisement | advertise on newsday Venditte Sr. built his son a batting cage in the backyard. One day while they were playing, he had a thought. "The idea just came to me," said Venditte Sr., 69. "I thought, 'Why can't somebody throw with both arms? What precludes someone from doing that?' " Venditte Sr. said they just practiced everything twice, righthanded throws and lefthanded throws.

"It's something I think a lot of kids could do if they worked on it,'' he said, "but they need to spend the time." Role may be long relief advertisement | advertise on newsday Far from overpowering, Venditte attacks hitters with mid-80s fastballs and looping sliders from his dual righthanded and lefthanded sidearm deliveries. Cashman said the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre coaching staff recently was instructed to use Venditte in long relief -- as opposed to the more conventional situational outings for a specialist -- to build up both arms for a possible Bronx arrival. "I need to be ready to help them win with whatever they need," Venditte said last week. "Whether that call is going to come or not, I don't know. But I just want to be ready.'' Venditte had surgery in 2012 to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder. While most pitchers would be forced to miss significant time, Venditte was able to continue pitching with his left arm -- but he was not the same pitcher. He made four appearances in the World Baseball Classic for Italy, finishing with an 0-1 record and a 9.00 ERA.

He appeared briefly for the Trenton Thunder in the Double-A playoffs and then was hit hard in a brief winter ball stint in Mexico. He was not invited to the Yankees' major-league camp in spring training this year and was relegated to a minor-league camp filled with players nearly 10 years younger. The rejection stung, Venditte said, leading to a spring training that, in his mind, had the look and feel of a last-gasp audition. Assigned to Double-A Trenton to start the season, "I knew I had to get off to a good start," Venditte said. With both arms healthy, he did just that, posting a 0.82 ERA and 0.73 WHIP in 22 innings. That earned him an early-summer promotion to Triple-A, and he has been effective in his new long-relief role. He has a 3.52 ERA in 46 innings. Venditte used to throw overhand from the right side and sidearm from the left, but minor-league pitching coordinator Gil Patterson said he felt he needed more deception in his delivery after shoulder surgery sapped him of some velocity. So now Venditte is a double sidearmer.

"The only way we're going to know for sure whether his stuff will play in the big leagues,'' Patterson said, "is to go put him there." If Venditte makes it to the majors, he might even get a chance to hit. He is, of course, a switch hitter. Subscribe to Newsday’s sports newsletter Receive stories, photos and videos about your favorite New York teams plus national sports news and events. MLB The Show 16 gives video gamers two pitchers in one with the ambidextrous Pat Venditte - Polygon MLB The Show 16 gives video gamers two pitchers in one with the ambidextrous Pat Venditte pin Last year when Pat Venditte brought his unprecedented switch-pitching ability to Major League Baseball, I flat-out declared that this talent would never find its way into Sony's MLB The Show series , and Venditte, a long-time minor leaguer, would only throw left-handed in a video game. Well, I'm flat-out wrong. In MLB The Show 16, which launches Tuesday for PlayStation 4 and PS3, Venditte throws with both arms and is able to change mid-game as he does in real life.

As the video above explains (and pardon me for broadcasting from inside a trashcan) a player using Venditte will be prompted to choose his pitching hand when the opposing batter is a switch hitter. Otherwise, Venditte will use the same handedness as the opposing batter (this gives a hitter less of a view of the ball's trajectory, making it harder to hit. Hitters generally do more poorly against pitchers coming from the same side they bat.) Carter Capps' strange, crow-hop delivery also is in The Show this year In real life, Venditte can use either hand, batter-to-batter; he doesn't get the privilege only when a switch hitter comes to the plate. Still, even this limited introduction of something potentially game-destroying took a lot of work. "It was definitely not easy," said Ramone Russell of Sony's San Diego Studio, which develops the MLB The Show series. "When this happened with him last year, we all said, 'Hey, this is really cool, so lets see how hard it is to implement." One designer, worked with programmers over the course of about two months to get this feature into the game.

San Diego Studio didn't have this feature in last year's game mainly because it didn't know if Venditte would be called up. They don't get to use players who are not members of the Major League Baseball Players Association, and a player can't join the union until he makes his big league debut. But I also felt that San Diego Studio would avoid creating a unique and potentially game-breaking feature simply for one guy, who was released by the big league club that promoted him last year and will probably begin the 2016 season in the minor leagues. "We did all this for one guy who isn't even on a major league roster come opening day," Russell said —  with pride in his voice, not resentment. Must Read Even a video game can't handle baseball's switch-pitching phenomenon Venditte was taught to use both arms to pitch since his childhood, and he regularly used both when he was a starter in college. At one point, Venditte put together a scoreless streak of 43 2/3 innings. When he was drafted, the organization for professional baseball umpires developed a rule — in consultation with the big leagues — governing how switch pitchers may use their arms during a game.

A pitcher must declare his hand before each at-bat and then remain with it through that at bat, unless for some reason he injures that arm but can still continue with the other. A switch hitter then chooses which side of the plate to bat. San Diego Studio had to inspect this rule closely to make sure MLB The Show 16 follows the same protocol. In a video game where anyone can create players and edit ratings, introducing switch-pitching without a lot of conditions could destroy the game, so Sony's San Diego Studio placed a lot of restrictions on how this talent is used. For starters, it's available only to Venditte. You can't create a switch pitcher, whether in Road to the Show or on the game's roster, and you can't give any other pitcher a switch-pitching skill. While Venditte's ratings can be changed, meaning a player could turn him into a starting pitcher with a super arsenal of pitches, they can't do what everyone wonders about with switch pitchers — get consecutive starts out of him. As only facing a switch-hitter triggers the choice, there's no means for starting a game and using one of his arms exclusively throughout it, then bringing him back the next day with the other arm.

Venditte's stamina and recovery is the same as any other standard pitcher. Fooling around with Venditte, I've generally picked the side that an opposing switch hitter has the toughest time with (the game will display their batting averages against left and right handers). However, if I've had a runner on first base and a switch hitter coming to the plate, I've chosen to throw left-handed because the pickoff move to first is a lot quicker and more deceptive. It's absolutely delightful to see this exotic talent have some kind of representation in a video game that takes a lot of pride in giving its players everything they see in Major League Baseball especially if we've never seen it before. Roster File is Polygon's news and opinion column on the intersection of sports and video games. More From Polygon Oakland Athletics call up switch-pitcher Pat Venditte Jones: Ambidextrous Venditte has rarest of MLB skills Oakland Athletics switch-pitcher Pat Venditte is living proof that self-belief can conquer nature's curse. Fans might stare when Venditte switches his special glove from one hand to the other, depending on the batter. But the Athletics promoted him because he pitched very well this season at Triple-A Nashville.

"There's a little bit of a sideshow to it for good reason," A's manager Bob Melvin said before the game. "But the reason he's here is because he's performed." Red Sox manager John Farrell was impressed with Venditte's performance, saying, "Our hands are full with one arm. But that was truly amazing to watch tonight. "To watch Venditte, it's a remarkable thing to see what one person's body is capable of doing. The coordination, even the guys on deck were remarking this is a very unique thing, a very cool thing, really." In 17 outings (16 in relief) this season in the minor leagues, Venditte was 1-0 with a 1.36 ERA and held opponents to a .167 batting average. In eight minor league seasons, the first seven in the New York Yankees ' organization, he had a 2.37 ERA with 52 saves and nine starts. The last time a pitcher threw with both hands in a major league game was Sept. 28, 1995, when Greg Harris did it with the Montreal Expos.

It was the next-to-last game of a career in which he appeared in 703, and he is the only pitcher in the modern era to do that. In an interesting coincidence, Harris also pitched parts of six seasons (1989-94) with the Red Sox, but the general manager at the time, Lou Gorman, refused to let him throw with both hands, saying he would make "a mockery of the game." Said Harris at the time: "Boston is so conservative. People are afraid to try anything." In a silent act of defiance, Harris usually chose to wear an ambidextrous glove on the mound. Oakland catcher Stephen Vogt faced Venditte in the minors about five years ago. Pat Venditte became the first major league pitcher to throw with both arms since the Expos' Greg Harris did it in 1995. Steve Boyle for ESPN Magazine "It's a sight to see, and he's very good both ways," Vogt said. "When we signed him I was excited because I want to see what it's like to catch a guy like that. He's kind of got the same stuff from both sides.

So whether it's a right-handed hitter or a left-handed hitter, you call the game accordingly. It's fun to see." Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts flied out against Venditte in the eighth inning Friday night. "I faced him a bunch of times in the minors, and I didn't have very good success," he said. "Facing him so many times, I would have put him in the big leagues a long time ago." Venditte's goal is to help the team win. And if his uniqueness stands out, he doesn't mind. "Whatever attention comes with it is fine, but we're here to win games," he said. "It doesn't matter if I'm pitching with both hands or one. It's one effort." Venditte has the matchup edge, throwing left-handed to lefties and right-handed to righties, except when he's facing a switch-hitter. In that case, the rule states he must decide which arm he's throwing with and the batter adjusts to that. He rarely, if ever, changes throwing arms within the same at-bat.

"He told me when he was with the Yankees in Triple-A that if his pitch count was too high left-handed they would have him just throw the rest right-handed to conserve his arm for the next day," Oakland bullpen coach Scott Emerson said. Venditte arrived at Fenway Park just after the first pitch. "It's a little bit of a novelty," Melvin said. "You're curious to see if this really is functional, and all he did in spring training is perform for us. I think he only had one or two outings where he even gave up runs and he's been doing the same thing in Triple-A." Venditte was 3 when he began using both hands. He's a natural right-hander, so he worked hard to become effective from the left side. He has thrown with both well enough to reach the majors. "I can't even fathom how somebody can do that," Melvin said. "It's tough enough to perform at this level throwing on one side let alone two." Pitching coach Curt Young had a succinct description: "It's just a gift." In other moves Friday, the Athletics optioned right-hander Dan Otero to Nashville and moved Coco Crisp to the 60-day disabled list with a neck injury.

ESPNBoston.com's Gordon Edes and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Throwing Batters Curves Before Throwing a Pitch - The New York Times The New York Times Baseball |Throwing Batters Curves Before Throwing a Pitch Search Continue reading the main story Photo In 18 appearances this season, with alternating arms, Venditte has a 3.29 earned run average. Credit Chris Machian for The New York Times The pitch was nothing remarkable: Pat Venditte, Creighton University’s temporarily right-handed pitcher, threw a fastball past a Northern Iowa batter for a called strike three. It was his next windup that evinced this young pitcher’s uniqueness and, perhaps, professional future. As his teammates whipped the ball around the infield, Venditte smoothly, unthinkingly, removed his custom glove from his left hand and slipped it on his right. Moments later he leaned back, threw a strike left-handed to the next batter, and finished the side in order. Venditte is believed to be the only ambidextrous pitcher in N.C.A.A. Division I college baseball, the ultimate relief specialist. A junior, he throws left-handed to lefties and right-handed to righties, and effectively.

In a home game in Omaha last Friday, he allowed only one hit in five and a third shutout innings to earn the victory against Northern Iowa. Because neither arm was particularly tired afterward, Venditte also pitched in both games of Creighton’s doubleheader against Northern Iowa two days later, retiring the only batter he faced (left-handed) in the first game and then tossing a shutout inning (pitching both ways) in the nightcap. He also pitched two innings, alternating arms, in Tuesday’s game against archrival Nebraska. Venditte (pronounced ven-DEH-tee) has a fine 3.29 earned run average in 18 appearances this season. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I don’t think twice about it,” said Venditte, whose father, Pat Sr., taught him to throw with both arms when he was 3. “You grew up with it, you love it, you want to keep playing as long as you can.” Continue reading the main story Venditte has improved so much in the past year that major league scouts are starting to consider him a possible late-round pick in this June’s amateur draft because of his versatility.

“He could be an economical two-for-one,” Jerry Lafferty, a longtime scout for the Philadelphia Phillies, said last Friday while assessing the 21-year-old Venditte from behind the backstop. Photo Vendittes custom glove, with four finger holes flanked by two thumb holes. Credit Chris Machian for The New York Times College baseball has had a few switch-pitchers in the past 15 years, but the major leagues have had only one since the 19th century: Greg Harris, primarily a right-handed reliever for many clubs from 1981 through 1995, pitched one inning using both arms for the Montreal Expos in his final season. That outing was considered more stunt than strategy. Venditte is smoothly proficient from both sides. His deliveries are not mirror images of each other: as a right-hander he throws over the top and relatively hard, up to 91 miles an hour, with a tumbling curveball; as a left-hander, he relies on a whip-like sidearm delivery and a biting slider. Umpires working Creighton’s games have to dust off seldom-used rules regarding switch-pitchers.

Like everyone else, Venditte gets only eight warm-up pitches upon entering a game and five before any inning, whether he chooses to throw left-handed or right-handed, and may not warm up again if he changes arms midinning. A switch-pitcher facing a switch-hitter could make a fine Abbott and Costello routine. Against Nebraska last year, a switch-hitter came to the plate right-handed, prompting Venditte to switch to his right arm, which caused the batter to move to the left-hand batter’s box, with Venditte switching his arm again. Umpires ultimately restored order, applying the rule (the same as that in the majors) that a pitcher must declare which arm he will use before throwing his first pitch and cannot change before the at-bat ends. “Eventually, after 10 or 15 minutes, they got it figured out,” Venditte said with a smile. Venditte’s customized Louisville Slugger glove is as distinctive as its owner: four fingers are flanked by two thumbs, perfectly symmetrical, so that he can slip it on either hand with ease. It allows him to change throwing arms so seamlessly during warmups — one second No.

27 is throwing left-handed, the next right-handed — that many unaware fans and opponents do double-takes. “The first time you see him, it’s definitely a distraction,” said Northern Iowa shortstop Brandon Douglas, who struck out (right-handed) against Venditte last Friday. “On the bus ride to games people talk, ‘You should see this guy. It’s pretty neat.’ ” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Until teams actually face him, that is. Creighton’s coach, Ed Servais, initially resisted using Venditte both ways because, he said, “I am a traditionalist when it comes to baseball, and I didn’t want it to become a circus.” But Venditte proved his ability last season, when he used both arms in 22 games and struck out batters each way in 12 of them. Photo Pat Vendittes name split a lineup card. Credit Chris Machian for The New York Times The Bluejays use Venditte as a long reliever so that he can be deployed at any point in any game.

In the Northern Iowa game last Friday, for example, Venditte quelled a third-inning rally and then, facing a lineup that alternated its lefty and righty hitters, calmly switched throwing arms 10 times in the next five innings and allowed no runs and only one single. (Pitch limits are looser with Venditte because he shares the workload between his arms.) “Usually you have to follow the hitter: a left-hander’s coming up, so you have to decide whether to bring a lefty in,” Creighton’s pitching coach, Rob Smith, said. “In this scenario, you have the control. It helps the depth of the bullpen a lot — you don’t have to burn a guy to get the matchup you want.” Venditte is naturally right-handed. But his father, a former college ballplayer who at 61 still catches for his Men’s Senior Baseball League team, noticed his 3-year-old son picking up a ball and throwing it with both arms on his own, and encouraged him to pursue it. “You’ve got to cultivate that,” said Pat Sr., who later built a batting cage, complete with lights, near the family’s home in an Italian neighborhood of Omaha.

To build his son’s muscles for baseball, Pat Sr. also taught Little Pat to punt with both legs and throw a football with both arms. “If I’d stuck with it,” he said, “he could have been a QB with both hands.” Venditte’s mound versatility could become an interesting test of baseball’s trend toward specialization. Major league teams have long forced college stars who both pitch and hit — players like Dave Stieb, John Olerud and Brad Wilkerson — to focus on either pitching or hitting as professionals, claiming that one is difficult enough. But as bullpens become ever more segmented, with left-handed and right-handed specialists entering games for only one or two batters apiece, a pitcher who can do both for one salary would certainly be intriguing. Venditte said he would probably return to Creighton for his senior season, trying to add a few miles an hour to his fastballs and enjoying the camaraderie of college ball. After throwing his five-plus innings last Friday, Venditte characteristically shunned ice treatment and skipped the trainer’s room. He joined the rest of his teammates by pulling the tarp across the diamond — with both hands, naturally.

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Question: In baseball, what name is given to an ambidextrous batter?
Answer: Switch hitter